Apple Crisp

That's what was left after eating and giving away a bunch of apples :o)

When life gives you apples, you bake apple crisp and do so often. We were blessed with an abundance of apples from our two trees this year: HoneyCrisp and McIntosh apples. So far I've baked apple crisp three times these past two weeks. I took some to work. At home, we served it with ice cream. Everybody loved it and I even got some recipe requests. I figured I might as well do a blog post about it. Normally I don't measure very closely when I make apple crisp because it doesn't need to be exact, but the last time I baked it, I paid close(r) attention for the purpose of sharing the recipe. I hope you bake it too. It's very easy to make and doesn't require a lot of time. Since we're on the topic of apples, what's your favorite apple dessert?

Apple Crisp - simple, homey, but oh so satisfying!

Served with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream. Yum!

 Apple Crisp
(crumb topping is heavily adapted from an Apple-Cinnamon Crumb Coffee Cake recipe in Rose's Heavenly Cakes)

Apple ingredients:

• 3lbs (1400 grams) apples, preferably a mixture of two kinds of apples - peeled, cored, cubed
• 2 tablespoons (25 grams) granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon bleached all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoons lemon juice
• pinch of salt, optional

Instructions (filling):

•  Combine apples, sugar, flour, lemon juice and salt (if using), and set aside.

Crumb topping ingredients:

• 1 cup (100 grams) almonds, toasted
• 1/3 cup (72 grams) brown sugar, firmly packed
• 2 tablespoons (25 grams) granulated sugar
• 1.5 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3/4 cup (80 grams) bleached all-purpose flour
• 4 tablespoons (57 grams) unsalted butter, melted
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions (crumb topping):

• Preheat the oven to 375 F degrees (175 Celsius).
• Combine the almonds, brown sugar, granulated and sugar in a food processor, and pulse until well combined and the nuts are coarsely chopped.
• Remove 1/2 cup of this nut-sugar mixture and add it to the apples. Toss to combine. Place the apples in an 8"x8" square baking dish (I use Pyrex). Bake the apples without the crumb topping for about 30-35 minutes until bubbly on the sides. In the meantime, finish making the crumb topping.
• To the mixture in the food processor, add flour, melted butter and vanilla extract. Pulse until you have a coarse, crumbly mixture. Refrigerate this for about 15-20 minutes.
• After the apples have baked for 30-35 minutes, remove the apples from the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 350 F degrees (150 Celsius).
• Remove the crumb topping from the fridge. Pinch together the cold crumb topping with your fingertips until about 1/3 to 1/2 of the mixture is formed into big clumps.
• Quickly distribute the crumb topping over the surface of the apples. Bake uncovered for another 25 minutes.
• Serve the Apple Crisp slightly warm with a scoop of ice cream and/or a dollop of whipped cream.
• Bon appetit!

The perfect bite!